Is This Art?
From an article on the Yale Daily News:
Aliza Shvarts ’08 wants to make a statement…Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process…The display of Schvarts’ project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts’ self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting. Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.
So, as artists who allow our belief in Jesus Christ, His teachings, and the Truth of Scripture to inform and permeate our work…what is our response? Do we applaud the freedom of other artists to express their creativity in whatever means they desire, or do we take a stand? Is there a stand to take? Is there room for Ms. Shvarts’ exhibit…for crucifixes submerged in urine…for portraits of the Virgin Mary made out of poop?
UPDATE - Ms. Shvarts and Yale are at odds now…Yale says it’s performance art, she says it’s real. Read about it here.
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Comments
I actually had to laugh out loud when I read that she said her intention was not to shock people.
To me, the goal of art is to convey or elicit an emotional response. Depending on the artist, that reaction can be intended to be pleasant or horrifying (or anything in between)…she made a choice to create something that would horrify me if I were to see it.
If that wasn’t her goal, does she still consider this work a success?
her project is actually fiction. She did not actually impregnate herself or have miscarriages. She calls it performance art. See here: http://www.nysun.com/news/national/yale-students-art-project-creative-fiction
And it was faked. No pregnancies, no abortions, just shock value.
This sickens me, just reading about it. I would never view it. Only a very broken, lost person could do something like this to herself and then inflict it on other people in various ways. Sad.
Why am I not surprised. Amazing that a school like Yale could produce a great man like William F. Buckley, Jr (who incidentally was the chairman of the Yale Daily News while a student)…and this moroon.
The YU alma mater has always been one of my big faves. Especially the end…”For God, for country, and for Yale!” There’s a great YouTube of the Whiffenpoofs singing it (It’s called “Bright College Years”).
I’m not sure WHAT to think…this sounds so bizarre, and so…not…’art’…
I suppose that valid art makes you think.
I’m thinking.
As a follower of Christ, it makes me want to have a conversation with her.
I’m pretty certain that I wouldn’t want to go see it.